Narcotic Usage

Abstract

JOE S. is a twenty-four-year-old man who says he is a narcotic addict. He also has hemophilia and has spent twelve of the last thirty-six months in a general hospital. Joe personifies the highly unpleasant elements of a complex and seemingly insoluble social problem. During the same period he spent six months in jail for possession of narcotics and a syringe and two weeks at the narcotic center at Lexington, Kentucky. He has been examined by dozens of doctors, who have spent uncounted hours discussing their findings. His unstable family background, his inability to cope with a crippling disease and . . .